High Capacity Film Development.

Nokton48

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Hi All,

Having a big backlog of 35mm and 120 film to develop, I decided to investigate what is available, and in the end decided to go with the JOBO Multi Tank System.

Most here are 35mm shooters, this 2561 Multitank 6 holds six 35mm reels (and you can load two 36 exposure rolls per reel with the 2501 reel) So that is twelve rolls of 35mm per film run. Requires a loader.

I shoot a lot of 120, my 2502 reels will do eight rolls per film run (two rolls per reel), I have made a couple of runs last weekend and it works beautifully! I'm using an old Unicolor Uniroller to spin the Multitanks.

Here's the 2502s set to 35mm, that will do six rolls at a go. I want some 2501s which will do two rolls of 35mm per reel, but require a rare JOBO film loader.
 

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Jobo 2502 reels you can load for one 135-36, 2x 120 roll films or 1x 220 roll film.

But even then you can do a lot of films in one run.
 
Jobo 2502 reels you can load for one 135-36, 2x 120 roll films or 1x 220 roll film.

But even then you can do a lot of films in one run.

This. The red clip and the size of the reel is misleading, the clip is actually for rolling 2x short 12-frame rolls..
 
Maybe. I have a Multitank 5 2553, 640ml volume in rotary necessary. In Holland you can get them for free when a minilab is putting their Jobo 2500 ATL in the gutter. Nobody wants to have those big tanks anymore. Normally I am also using the 2523, 270ml volume in rotary and suitable for two 135-36 films or 4x 120 roll films. They can also fit on any CPE-2/CPA-2/CPP-2/CPP-3 or bigger ATL machine. The Jobo 15xx tanks I am using on the Heiland TAS inverse robot machine. It takes 1510-1520 and 1540 tanks with the 1501 reel.
 
Jobo 2502 reels you can load for one 135-36, 2x 120 roll films or 1x 220 roll film. But even then you can do a lot of films in one run.


I have a steel Nikor tank that will do eight 35mm rolls. With the JOBO and the 2501 reels that goes up by 50%. According to the markings on the drum it's the 2501 reels that will hold 12 35mm films. I guess the spiral runs all the way to the center of the core. So I will need some 2501 reels.

I have the red plastic tabs, to do eight rolls of 120 with the 2502's. I used them last weekend and they worked perfectly for me, and experienced no problems loading eight rolls at a time. This is really good production for me, as the big steel Nikor will only do four 120 rolls at a time. The JOBO is 2X that!
 
I just purchased six of the rare used 2501 reels, as I want them for future use.
Now I will look for the rare 2505 loader, which is necessary to load the 2501s.

The 2502 reels are very useful to me for 120 and and I'll be keeping those.
And I can do six rolls of 35mm with the 2502's which is useful to me.
 
For the Jobo 1501 and 2502 reels you have a Red clip to seperate the films that they are not going to overlap when loading.

For Paterson you do not have this feature. Just tape them together....
 
Here is what I have found...

The 35mm JOBO reels ARE difficult to load, at least for the first time! The film stuck half-way through the loading process, so I simply gave up on JOBO for that at this point. Actually I put the first partially-loaded roll into the tank, capped the tank, and turned on the lights. Added two more rolls of XX to my front pocket, and arranged my eight-reel Honeywell Nikor tank (which I have used happily for ten+ years), and proceeded to load eight rolls of XX into the Nikor. That is pretty good but I wish I could do more at a time.

I also have the JOBO Multitank 5 which fits four of my 2509n sheet film reels, I am presently loading it with 6x9cm cut film. Eighteen sheets at a time, that is what I am going to try (six sheets per reel, JOBO recommends four per reel, but I am going to try it and see if it works) with extra chemistry.

So far the JOBO have been great for developing eight rolls of 120 at a time, that works great and is REALLY high capacity for me. For 35mm, well that has been rather aggravating so far, I guess I need to trim the 35mm film on the front end of the roll, as they recommend. Perhaps I will try that. The eight-reel Honeywell Nikor is foolproof for me, and I'll continue to use it. The only downside to the big Nikor is that I must hand agitate the big, heavy tank (once every minute) with my developing rituals. The developing times are quite long with my developer (twenty + minutes straight Microdol-X replenished) sooooo, it is nice to throw the JOBO on the Unicolor Uniroller and come back twenty minutes later. The JOBO film washer works great too, although I had to rebuild the screw-in end, with quite a few plumbing supplies (from the local Lowes) to fit my standard USA darkroom faucet. It was worth the time and effort (and cost) to rebuild it. The JOBO film washer is fantastic!

So for me, the JOBO is absolutely great for some of my uses, not so great for others. But that could change as I experiment with this stuff, and acquire more of the difficult to find bits and pieces.
 
Here is my modified JOBO film washer.
I enjoy building things with my hands.
I bought the unit from a German dealer at a great price.
Then I rebuilt the unit with plumbing parts from the local Lowes Hardware store.
The venturi-effect on this thing is amazing! :)

Fits my Multi tank 2, Multi Tank 5, and Multi Tank 6.


001 by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
Well in Europe you put a standard Gardena (garden supplies) on the tap and then you can hook up any Paterson or Jobo quick wash unit on it. I am using a Lidl garden timer between it so it will stop after the set time of 10-15 minutes. Also very handy for baryta prints.
 
Jobo Multitanks. Shown are the 2509n Sheet Film Reels. On the bottom right there are two scrap sheets of 6x9cm in the 2509n reel, so you can see how this works with 6x9cm sheet film.

001 by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
That's neat Nokton48. I intend to start doing roll tank development, real soon now, as I have been for the last couple of years. :p
 
In a few weeks I can offer a new rotary processing system. It will work with Paterson, Kaiser, Jobo, AP drums in rotary and can control the temperature till 45C. Price: 1/3 of the Jobo CPP-3 processor with elevator. :)
Partial made in France and Germany.
 
The 35mm JOBO reels ARE difficult to load

I hear a lot of people say that and never understood why. I load all my reels by gently pushing the film onto the reel, I don't even have to twist the reel. I think the key is to cut the edges of the film and make sure that the reels are bone dry.
 
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